[SBXVII]

Let me ask this and perhaps NC will be happy after....

Both side have a contract. In 2006 both sides could opt out if they didn't like the contract. The owners opted out because they didn't like a specific part or perhaps a couple specific parts of the contract. BUT.... both sides agreed to keep working under the very contract until a new one could be agreed upon.

So if I've supposedly seen the light, what should the owners have done if they didn't like parts of the contract? over look it and sign the deal and keep working under a contract they don't like? This would have made the owners saints? Instead they chose to opt out of the contract in order to work out a new deal which would be more to their liking (which by the way is not illegal) and now it's all their fault? I presume had the players done this in 06 we would be pointing fingers at the players right?

The owners opted out but agreed to keep working under the very agreement they didn't like in order to facilitate a new agreement. Shame on the owners. Yet the players who are finally frustrated that they are getting money taken away decided to not sit at the table for the final 6 hrs, decided to not extend the 06 agreement in order to keep business as usual, and chose to decertify early in order to "have leverage" (as D.Smith put it) illegally.

Had the players not decertified and agreed to an extention there might not have been raised tickets prices, raised jersey prices, employees having pay cuts, etc. etc.

Forget it. Whatever. Still goes back to there's not counter offers and the players keep talking about June 3rd or June 6th. Not about sitting down this week and trying to hammer something out.